Herhof Environmental, a subsidiary of Treasury Holdings, has confirmed that it is to lodge a planning application for a "waste to energy" plant in Waterford Port in the constituency of the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen.
The application which is to be lodged before the end of June is being opposed by a number of local groups which hope to make it a significant regional issue in the local and European elections in June.
The Herhof plant which is designed to recover energy from 150,000 tonnes of domestic refuse generated in the south-east annually, is proposed for a 20 acre site at Belview, part of Waterford Port.
The regional waste management strategy for the south-east adopted by counties Carlow, Kilkenny, Waterford, Wexford and South Tipperary recommends the provision of an integrated waste management station - incorporating thermal treatment with energy recovery.
It also says the station should be at a central location in the region, served by a network of transfer stations preferably using the region's rail network to transport waste.
Mr Ben Gavin chairman of Waterford Port Company which is a joint venture partner in the project with Herhof said yesterday that the site was located in the "South Kilkenny East Waterford (SKEW) box" and was appropriate for a waste management facility. He pointed out it was located on a national road and the Rosslare to Waterford rail route, which had rail links to Tipperary, Wexford, Kilkenny and Carlow.
A contract to handle the region's waste is due to be awarded later this year.
While the Herhof application is being lodged in the light of that company's bid to win the contract, the company insists the plant would use biological, drying and mechanical methods and would not be an incinerator.
According to Mr Phil Callery the company's project manager, municipal waste would be shredded and then allowed to dry out for six days in large composting boxes. The residual "dry stabilate", which has a high calorific value can be used as a fuel for cement kilns and power plants. Herhof said it intends to export it for sale.
According to the company, because the residue "is largely inert, emissions are not problematic."
However, opposition to the proposal has come from a variety of groups, many of which "don't accept this is non-burn facility" according to Mr Gavin.
Those opposed to the facility include the Waterford based Anti-Incineration Alliance; the Kilkenny/Waterford Waste Study Group; the Safer Urban Rural Environment Group as well as members of the Green, Socialist Workers and Sinn Féin political parties.
Members of the Cork Harbour Alliance for Safer Environment (CHASE), which opposed the application by Indaver for a toxic incinerator in Ringaskiddy have also expressed opposition to the plan.
A spokesman for the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, said yesterday the Minister could not comment on individual cases but is on the record as saying that thermal treatment and energy recovery is part of the solution to the Republic's burgeoning waste management crisis.